href="tools.html">the tools</a>, the <a
href="testing.html">testing framework</a>
- * <b>Writers:</b> You can help us
with writing <a
+ * <b>Writers:</b> You can help us
bywriting <a
href="documentation.html">documentation</a>.
</ul>
something that would help tremendously would be to help with
small duties in the project that need to be addressed.
+ You can see what needs to be done in the class libraries <a href="class-status.html">here</a>
+
+** To start contributing
+
+ As a programmer, you can contribute in three different scenarios to Mono:
+
+ <ul>
+ * If you only have Linux/Unix.
+ * If you only have Windows.
+
+ * If you have both Linux and Windows.
+ </ul>
+
+ You might also want to check our <a href="#setup">common
+ setups</a> section that describes some common setups that people
+ use while working on Mono.
+
+*** Contributing to the class library, regression tests or the compiler
+
+ This only requires Windows currently.
+
+ To start developing classes or to contribute to the compiler,
+ you only need Windows and the .NET Framework 1.0 SDK. Please notice
+ that you do not need Visual Studio (although you can use it if
+ you want). The .NET Framework SDK requires some version of
+ Windows XP or Windows NT. If you are running Windows 98, 95
+ or Me, you could use instead the <a
+ href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/downloads/default.asp?url=/downloads/sample.asp?url=/msdn-files/027/001/829/msdncompositedoc.xml">.NET Redist package</a>, but it
+ lacks the documentation browser and the ildasm program (C#, VB, JScript and IL
+ assembler are included).
+
+ You can get it <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/downloads/default.asp?url=/downloads/sample.asp?url=/msdn-files/027/000/976/msdncompositedoc.xml&frame=true">here</a>
+
+ If you are new to .NET, writing regression tests is a good way
+ of starting to contribute: it will help you get used to C# as
+ well as getting comfortable with the .NET APIs.
+
+ This helps because at this point you might be the best
+ qualified person to fix a problem found by the regression
+ test, or you might have a new class to implement in the .NET
+ world that only has a test suite.
+
+ To get started writing tests see the <a href="testing.html">Test Suite</a>
+ section.
+
+*** Contributing to the runtime engine
+
+ This only requires Linux, currently some tasks are easier if you
+ have access to Windows as well.
+
+ Here are a few things you can do:
+ <ul>
+ * Port the runtime to other architectures.
+ * Port the runtime to other operating systems.
+ * Finish the IL code verifier in the runtime.
+ * Hack the JIT, improve the code generator, add new
+ pattern rules, improve the register allocator.
+ * Implement the debugging interfaaces
+ </ul>
+
+** Bug reporting
+
+ If you find bugs in Mono, please make sure you enter a bug
+ report so we can keep track of problems in Mono.
+
+ To enter bug reports go to <a href="http://bugzilla.ximian.com">
+ http://bugzilla.ximian.com</a> and enter bug reports against
+ your favorite component (Mono, Runtime, C# compiler).
+
+ You can review the list of current bugs by going <a href="http://bugzilla.ximian.com/buglist.cgi?product=Mono%2FClass+Libraries&product=Mono%2FMCS&product=Mono%2FRuntime&bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&email1=&emailtype1=substring&emailassigned_to1=1&email2=&emailtype2=substring&emailreporter2=1&changedin=&chfieldfrom=&chfieldto=Now&chfieldvalue=&short_desc=&short_desc_type=substring&long_desc=&long_desc_type=substring&bug_file_loc=&bug_file_loc_type=substring&keywords=&keywords_type=anywords&op_sys_details=&op_sys_details_type=substring&version_details=&version_details_type=substring&cmdtype=doit&order=%27Importance%27&form_name=query">here</a>
+
** Small tasks
A few smaller tasks are here, dropped in no particular order:
<ul>
- * <b>MCS compilation process:</b> Currently MCS does
- not build with a single `make' command. This should
- be fixed (this being part of the `Joel Test' that
- software has to pass).
-
* <b>Mono/doc and web site:</b> They need to be
packaged up in the official `distribution'
- * <b>Enthusiasts: </b>
+ * Adding serialization support to all the classes.
+
+ We have many classes, but we have not implemented in
+ many cases the serialization and re-incarnation support in
+ them (this is pretty straight forward code, and simple,
+ but there is a lot to be done here).
+ </ul>
+
+* Emacs support
+
+ Brad Merryl's C# mode for Emacs is available: <a
+ href="http://www.cybercom.net/~zbrad/DotNet/Emacs/">http://www.cybercom.net/~zbrad/DotNet/Emacs/</a>
+
+* Books on C# and DotNet.
+
+ <ul>
+ * Dotnet Books (<a href="http://www.dotnetbooks.com">http://www.dotnetbooks.com</a>)
+
+ * Dotnet Resources (<a href="http://www.dotnetexperts.com/resources/">
+ http://www.dotnetexperts.com/resources</a>)
+
+ * O'Reilly C# Essentials (<a href="http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/csharpess/">
+ http://www.oreally.com/catalog/csharpess</a>)
+
+ * O'Really .NET Essentials (<a href="http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/dotnetfrmess/">
+ http://www.oreally.com/catalog/dotnetfrmess</a>)
+ </ul>
+
+<a name="setup">
+* Common Setups
+
+ People running both Linux and Windows while contributing to
+ Mono use a number of tricks to increase their productivity.
+
+ Scenarios:
+
+ <ul>
+ * <b>Linux host and Windows host</b>
+
+ The Windows file system is shared (right click on
+ your hard drive icon, and select sharing, allow this
+ to be shared).
+
+ The Windows machine has the required build tools
+ (cygwin, and the .NET framework). On the Windows
+ machine, you want to setup the ssh server (run the
+ ssh-host-config program to configure your ssh) and
+ run it (from a cygwin terminal, type: /usr/sbin/sshd).
+
+ From the Linux side, you want to mount the Windows
+ file system, using something like this:
+
+<tt><pre>
+ mount -t smbfs -o uid=miguel,username="Miguel de Icaza" "//quack/c$" /mnt
+</pre></tt>
+
+ In the above example, my Linux user name is
+ `miguel', and this will allow this user to have
+ read/write access to the share.
+
+ The host name is `quack', and the name of the share
+ is `c$' (that is the C: partition).
+
+ The file system is accessible on /mnt.
+
+ You can perform your cvs update and cvs commits from
+ the /mnt directory, and run Emacs or your favorite
+ Linux text editor on the Unix side in this way.
+
+ Then from another terminal, you can ssh into your
+ Windows box using ssh, like this: ssh "Miguel de Icaza@quack"
</ul>
-* Special note
+* Special Note
If you have looked at Microsoft's implementation of .NET or
their shared source code, you may not be able to contribute
projects / mono.git / blobdiff